[geeks] Sun Fire V210: A New Low in SPARC Servers?

[Scott Howard]

On Thu, Feb 02, 2006 at 04:56:41PM -0600, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> And that's about where the fun stops.  I knew I was in for a wild ride
> when I unpacked the server and saw a sticker alerting me to the fact
> that maximum POST/OBP diagnostics are enabled on -every boot- by default
> to ensure maximum system serviceability or some garbage.

No.  They are enabled on every _power cycle_, not every boot. Of course,
it's fully configurable - the sticker is just there to alert you to the
fact it changed.

> We ordered systems with Solars 8, Solaris 9, and Solaris 10, in hopes
> that we could get the newest media kits for each.  We got Solaris 8 2/04
> (the latest/last, as far as I know), Solaris 9 8/04 (a year behind the
> latest release), and Solaris 10 3/05.  I can understand Sun not having a
> fast enough shipping pipeline to get 10 1/06 into an order that shipped
> a few days after its release, but not including the 8/05 release of
> Solaris 9 is puzzling to say the least.

Media kits for Solaris 10 1/06 are not yet out. Historically they would
wait until the media kits were ready before releasing the OS, now they
release it as soon as it's ready to go.  Not sure why you didn't get
Sol 9 9/05 - most likely the sales person ticked the wrong box.\

> At least, that's how it's supposed to work.  On all the machines I've
> tried so far, running "setupsc" followed by "resetsc" has resulted in a
> fully dead ALOM that hangs while loading itself from flash.  Sun came

Wow..  I've set up dozens (over a hundred I'd say) of systems with
ALOMs, and I've never see that happen.

>    Rebooting with command: boot net:dhcp - install
>    Boot device: /pci at 1f,700000/network at 2:dhcp  File and args: - install
>    100 Mbps FDX Link up
>    4000 100 Mbps FDX Link up
>    SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic_108528-29 64-bit
>    Copyright 1983-2003 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
>    Hardware watchdog enabled
> 
> And there it hangs.  I can't even break back into OBP; I have to get
> ALOM to power-cycle the system.

Snoop is your friend! What is the last thing it tries to access over the
network before the hang?  "boot -v" might also give you some more info.

  Scott.